The 10th African Dairy Conference and Exhibition was held in Nairobi, Kenya from September 24-26, 2014. The conference brought together dairy stakeholders from across Africa to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the industry. Key topics included increasing milk production through better adoption of technology, addressing issues like market access and farm inputs, and developing policies to promote regional trade. Speakers emphasized the potential for dairy to reduce poverty and drive economic growth if production and efficiency are increased to meet international standards and demand.

1. RAPPORTEURS SUMMARRY OF PROCEEDINGS OF - THE
10th AFRICAN DAIRY CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Held at KICC – NAIROBI, KENYA,
ON 24TH-26TH SEPTEMBER, 2014
Theme: Discovering African Dairy, Refreshing Mindsets.

2. PREAMBLE
• The Eastern and South African Dairy Association (ESADA), is an association of
dairy industry practitioners from 9 (Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, South
Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). One of its key mandate
has been knowledge and experience sharing forums through symposiums and
conferences
• To enable stakeholders across the continent and the world at large to expound,
disseminate and enlighten each other on achievements, challenges,
opportunities, and issues threatening the dairy sector, ESADA organizes the
African Dairy Conference and Exhibition (AfDA) from time to time.

3. African Dairy Conference and Exhibition- AfDA
• This year’s conference was held at Kenyatta International Conference
Centre (KICC), Nairobi-Kenya.
• This event showcases products like animal health, feeds, breeding and
welfare products , farm equipment and appliances , milk processing
and packing equipment, food ingredients and additives, dairy
products , dairy industry support or allied companies e.g. financial
institutions, logistics companies etc., research institutions and
development etc. in the Meat, Poultry & Seafood industry

4. Conference objectives –ESADA ….ED
Overall goal:
• Technology transfer/knowledge sharing
• Intra-regional trade
Objective:
• Expose players to technologies in the industry
• Showcase products, services and technologies for trade and
benchmarking
• Provide platform to discussions on policy and their impact on trade in
the dairy industry.

5. Official opening

6. Remarks from Deputy President –H.E Hon William Ruto
• Dairy sector stakeholders encouraged to engage with policy makers in
the expedience of reducing trade barriers across borders, so as to
increase access of their products.
• Harmonization of trade policies across the region will enhance
products flow
• Policy interventions that impede the growth of the sector e.g.
availability of quality semen from bulls in Kenya, where the country
plans to double semen storage capacity within the coming year
(800M-1.6B)
• Revamping of the vaccines production (KEVEVAPI) from water-based
to Oil-based reducing costs by 70%

7. Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries, CS - Mr. Felix Koskei
• Dairy sector in Kenya growth rate (2002-2014), providing livelihoods
to 1.2M, dairy farmers, 500,000 service providers, indirect
employment to over 750,000.
• Key issues affecting the livestock sector, lack of infrastructure,
inadequate veterinary services esp. in ASAL areas (Camels and goats).
• Draft bill in progress to address camel and goat dairy products
growth.

8. State Department of Livestock, PS – Prof. Sigor
• Main issues in the dairy sector in Kenya, includes:
i. Market access
ii. Farm inputs supply
iii. Extension service
• The conference was challenged to address these issues affecting the
dairy sector COMESA and Southern Africa

9. Chairman –ESADA – Dr. Kipkirui Arap Lang’at
• The conference broken down into eight topical sessions that cover key
areas affecting the dairy industry
• The dairy sector is a large and growing sector in Africa and has the
potential to create wealth in both urban and rural areas.
• Production of milk in the region falls short of meeting demand
• Deficit attributed to:
i. Low adoption of technology,
ii. Low incentives to stimulate production,
iii. Limited access to financial services including insurance,
Potential for increasing milk demand exists within Africa (e.g. school milk
program)

10. Chairman's’ speech cont’d
Expected outcomes from the conference include:
• Dairy industry outlook from the regional and global perspectives as we
seek ESADA seeks to equip members with the right information.
• Participants will also access information on current trends, future
projections, best practices, available opportunities and challenges, discuss
industry-specific policy issues that have a deep impact on the dairy
industry and its development.
• Emerging trade and competitiveness of the sector and the need to enhance
the dairy value chain
• Sourcing for opportunities for public and private partnership especially in
the use of data and research as key instruments in decision-making for
both the governments and the private sector.

11. Vice president – Land O’Lakes
• The organization has a lot of experience and expertise in the dairy
industry using the cooperative approach gained from working with
over 300,000 USA farmers
• Recognizes that small and medium scale farmers are key to
development and growth of the dairy sector, and has chosen to share
with them these experience, esp. dairy value chain development

12. Presentations

13. Session 1
• Milk production grew where demand grew
• Global per capita milk consumption is increasing
• Increased production of milk is influenced by factors other than price
• 2009 and 2013, milk prices were lowest due to adverse weather conditions
resulting in high feed prices.
• Only 20% of African milk reaches processors
• Africa is a net importer
• Dairy sector has the capacity to support livelihoods to the increasing population
if developed
• There is capacity for African dairy sector to compete favorably with the rest of
the world
• Commercial orientation of milk production is key to increased competitiveness

14. Session 1 cont’d
• Challenges affecting the sustainability of the dairy sector growth:
• Greenhouse gas emissions, Soil Nutrients, Waste, Water, Soil, Biodiversity,
Market Development, Rural Economies, Working Conditions, Product Safety
and Quality, Animal Care
• The Global Dairy Agenda for Action urges members to commit to set
standards to address the above challenges, and report.
• Dairy sector development needs to address income, self-sufficiency,
and employment through business and/or livelihood driven scenarios
that requires the collaboration of private sector, gov’t and dev’t
partners.

15. Session 1 cont’d
• Development of a hub for the value chain actors in the sector to
engage and access services, e.g, input suppliers, financials, transport,
etc
• The use of the stage gate tool to evaluate producer organizations (PO)

16. Session two: world dairy trade and markets (Status
and prospects)
• The dairy sector needs to enable Commercial Investment through Market-Driven
Development.
• “Competitiveness of a company and the health of the ‘communities’ around it are
mutually dependent.”
• Poverty alleviation can be achieved through dev’t of the dairy sector.
• African dairy has the potential to supply the world milk markets however it must
attain and maintain international stds including hygiene
• African dairy sector needs to increase productivity and efficiency per unit of
input.
• Market driven production of milk and standards rather than the traditional supply
driven without market intelligence
• There is need for more transparency along the value chain in terms of pricing and access to
markets

17. Session three: Dairy policies and
economics- unlocking the
potential
unlocking the potential

18. Session 3
• Dairy sector growth and sustainability has to embrace both
environmental and social responsibility i.e. triple bottom line
• Food safety is critical for improved public health, trade facilitation,
acceleration of economic growth and alleviation of rural poverty.
•

19. Dairy production for global
market
Competitiveness and sustainability

20. Session four
• The Dutch dairy industry has been successful by focusing on cooperation,
education, farm investment, farm improvement, and milk sourcing strategies.
• Livestock Protective Fences (LPF) enhance milk production and mastitis control in
intensive zero-grazing dairy farming resulting in increased profitability.
• The provision of nutritional supplements thro’ the use of liquid technology
enhances animal health & increases productivity.
• Aflatoxins are harmful to human health & barriers to regional & international
trade. African countries need to develop and harmonize policies, standards and
control measures.
• Vaccines ands vaccination programs are vital for enhanced dairy production.
There’s a need to identify services that can be delivered by the private sector, the
public sector and via PPPs (service structure innovation, enabling environment
innovation).

21. Animal Health and Welfare

22. Session Five (a)
• Ticks with multiple generations per year and high reproductive rates
have greater probability of developing resistance
• Acaricides resistance management is a function of incorporating a
composite of integrated approaches in ticks control – IPM Strategy.
• FMD prevalence in Uganda is significantly prevalent in herds that are
exposed to physical factors like, long distances covered by livestock
(over 2km), poor hygiene conditions, proximity to abattoirs, and
interaction with new animals in the herd.

23. Session 5 (b)
• African dairy industry needs to adopt the cooperative model to
increase value chain efficiency and increase returns to smallholders.
• UHT production volumes and efficiency can be improved through the
use of enzymes.
• Consumption of dairy products can be increased significantly through
the production of flavored products.

24. Animal Feeding and
Management

25. Session Six (a)
• Tremendous efforts are underway in East Africa in feed
resource development through screening and evaluation of
introduced forage species, hence concerted efforts are needed
to scale up/out forage production to meet the increasing fodder
requirements.
• Productivity increase in the dairy sector should increase climate
resilience while reducing emissions.

26. Session Six (b)
• Probiotics (bacteria and yeast) when administered in adequate
quantities can be used effectively to enhance the appeal of dairy
products and consequently improved human health.
• Standards are a solution for unsafe foods in the market and act as
reference documents to all players at every level of the food value
chain.
• Standards are key to market access and are visibly presented via the
standardization marks.
• KEBS is the standards body for Kenya and is leading in harmonization
of EAC standards

27. Session 7
• Research is critical for the dairy industry ( nutrition, Diseases, product
development, rehabilitation of degraded grazing lands, water
harvesting)
• Training offers opportunity to disseminate research results ( For
instance, Uganda has established a dairy Center of excellence)
• Need to address challenges to financing through graduating farmers
into formal finance, addressing risk and security, building adaptive
capacity and clearly defining shared vision.
• Donor support necessary for rapid development of the dairy industry
(in areas such as genetic improvement, disease control etc).